


Riding Your Bicycle Across the River

by Veridissima



Category: Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: Childhood Friends, Cute Kids, Gen, Mentioned Southside Serpents Gang, Parentdale Appreciation Week 2019, Pre-Canon, parentdale
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-19
Updated: 2019-02-19
Packaged: 2019-10-31 19:54:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,249
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17855933
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Veridissima/pseuds/Veridissima
Summary: Twelve year old Fred is annoyed about being left out of things by his friends, FP and Alice, so one night he decides to take his bicycle over to the SouthsideFill for Parentdale Appreciation Week 2019





	Riding Your Bicycle Across the River

**Author's Note:**

> Hi!! This is my first Riverdale and it's my entry for day 6 of Parentdale Appreciation Week 2019 (which I promise I posted on time on tumblr, just a bit late here...), and this day for "Favorite Dynamic", which to me happens to be Alice, Fred and FP and I really hope we get some of that friendship someday!!!
> 
> I really hope everyone enjoys this!!!

Fred was tired of being left behind. Stupid FP and Alice were always doing that and it was not Fred’s fault that they weren’t neighbors - his stupid parents were the ones who bought the house here, instead of the Southside. His mom didn’t even let him go there, she always said that FP and Alice should come over - they didn’t mind ( _and Fred didn’t either, really, but still…_ ) - but he was mad that everyday they would come to school with stupid stories he wasn’t a part of.

So tonight, after his parents checked on him and went to bed, Fred got up, arranged some pillows under the covers, like he had seen people do in the movies, and climbed out of his window, using the ladder he had smartly put under his window earlier that day. He climbed on his bike and started the ride across the town and river.

The town was quiet this late at night, and Fred didn’t like it. Not that he was scared, of course not,he was almost thirteen and he was not afraid of the dark - he was too grown up for that. But it still felt weird, the town seemed dead like this, so seeing the neon lights from Pops helped calm him down.

For some reason, after crossing the river, the silence was gone and he could see people everywhere, still moving around, and once again Fred felt weird - not scared, of course, he wasn’t a baby anymore.

He still remembered the way to the trailer park from the few times he had been over, only with his parents to pick one of his friends or both, but most times just FP, back before Alice joined them in middle school. But reaching the trailer park, he couldn’t tell which one was FP’s and he started questioning his decision, as adults and some older kids started yelling at him.

“Leave him alone, assholes,” he heard FP yell at a group of teens, running in his direction, but it didn’t stop them, as they started taunting him, and even using Junior, which he knew FP hated and had stopped using in 3rd grade.

“Fuck off,” Alice came right after, throwing the finger at the older kids, who still wouldn’t stop.

“Fred, what are you doing here?” FP asked.

“Why are you in your pajamas?” Fred couldn’t answer that, he couldn’t tell them he wanted this to feel like a sleepover and he had thought of them in their pajamas too.

“Who’s the baby, Junior?” someone yelled. “Another client for your mom, Smith?”

“Fuck off.”

“Watch your language, kid.”

“Leave them alone,” another voice said, it was a girl probably around 15 or 16, with brown hair, who seemed to hold authority over everybody else. “You okay, FP? Alice?”

“Yes,” he said.

“Yes,” Alice answered. “But I had it handled.”

“Of course. I’m sure you can kick all their butts,” she said coming closer. “Go on. I will keep your friend’s bike safe.”

“Thank you,” Fred said. “I’m Fred,” he said, offering his hand, before Alice was pulling on him.

“Let’s go.”

“Who’s she?”

“That’s Gladys. FP has a crush on her.”

“I do not.”

“You do.”

“I do not.”

“You do.”

“Shut up, Alice.”

“She seems nice,” Fred said, trying to diffuse the situation - he knew how these two got when they started arguing. “So what’s happening?”

“Nothing,” Alice answered at the same time as FP told him it was Serpent Business, and Alice kicked him again. He was brought to where they had been siting before, he could recognize their school books, only Alice’s. Fred now recognized FP’s trailer behind him, full of people inside.

“Why are you here, Fred?” she asked, pulling him between them. And no matter how he was taller than the two of them - something he felt very proud of - right now, between the two of them, he felt rather small.

“I don’t know. You just seemed to have fun and you had talked about hanging out tonight and I thought…”

“God, Fred,” Alice said, starting to laugh. 

“What’s going on?”

“It’s complicated,” FP answered, he was never good at explaining stuff and he could tell Alice didn’t want him to talk.

“Fred, we hang out, at midnight, because I can’t go home and FP can’t go home.”

“Why?”

“Because… because my mom is busy, and his dad is busy too.”

“When my parents are busy, I can just stay in my room or watch TV in the living room. I don’t get why you can’t do that.”

“Because we can’t, Fred,” FP said.

“So what do you do?”

“Most times, I try to do homework, while FP throws rocks at people or cars, until someone comes over and yells at us.”

“And when do you go to bed?”

“My mom is hopefully done around 1 am. FP will probably crash with me tonight.”

“Why? Does this happen every night?”

“Of course not,” she said.

“Would the Serpents be as lucky to get this kind of money every day…” FP murmured. “Once a month, maybe, if they are lucky. Once every two/three months is probably more correct.”

“But you have more stories.”

“Not this late. Do you know how late it is?”

“No, I was just waiting for my parents to go to bed and they took too long.”

“Come on. You should go home,” FP said. “I’m going to go get my bike.”

“Why do I need to go?”

“Because it’s late and you’re worrying your parents and I don’t want them to think FP and I are bad influences. FP would be inconsolable if he couldn’t see you.”

“I’m ready.”

“I’m taking the bike,” Alice said, taking the bike from his hands.

“No, it’s mine.”

“Penny has mine and I’m not going to ride in the back, FP. And I ride better than you.”

“You do not.”

“I do.”

“You do not.”

“I do.”

“You broke your arm riding a bike,” Fred pointed out, before they spent the rest of the night like this.

“I’ll let you go get Fred’s bike from Gladys.” That seemed to convince FP, as he went up to the older kids. “Keep guard over the bike, don’t let anyone take it, including FP. I’m just going to hide my books.”

Alice picked up her stuff and ran two trailers over - Fred guessed that was hers, it looked very much like FP’s. The garden at the front was a bit cleaner, but everything else was pretty much the same - it was just not as noisy as the Jones’ home.

“What took you so long?” FP asked as she joined them, she ignored him and got on his bike, as he took the seat on the back. 

Mom had told him it wasn’t safe for two people to ride on one bike, which was true, because he and Hal had still tried it when they were seven and Hal ended up with a scuffed elbow and his mom didn’t let him play outside for two full weeks. But FP and Alice were good at it and they didn’t fall one time.

Fred rode next to them, slowly, taking the longer path home, and they went along the town, making up stories about each house they passed, Riverdale, at least the Northside, was still quiet and deserted, but this time, with his best friends next to him, Fred didn’t feel even one bit scared -  _but of course, he wasn’t scared before either_.


End file.
